The invention relates to a method and apparatus for synchronization of a decoding unit to a received data bit stream encoded according to a predetermined data protocol.
A communication data protocol allows two or more entities of a communication system to communicate between them to transmit a data stream via a physical communication channel. Data protocols may be implemented by hardware or software elements. Communication systems use predefined data formats and data protocols for exchanging messages. The transferred information or data is normally transported in encoded form. A data source encodes the data according to the used data protocol and the encoded data is then transmitted via the physical communication channel to a receiving unit where the received data bit stream is decoded by a decoding unit as defined by the data protocol. The data source or transmitter can send or transmit a long stream of continuous data via the communication channel to the receiving unit. The received data stream of some data protocol is continuous and does not comprise gaps which may be used for synchronization of the decoding unit of the receiving unit. Most data protocols use predetermined synchronization patterns which can be detected on the receiving side by a detection unit for synchronization, however, these synchronization patterns may be sent only rarely so that the synchronization on the receiving side takes long and transmitted data bits of the data bit stream received by the receiving unit before successful synchronization cannot be decoded and get lost.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for fast and reliable synchronization of a decoding unit to a received data bit stream.